In this episode, I talk to artists’ rights activists Neil Turkewitz and David Lowery about the scope and nature of fraud in the NFT trade–and why NFTs are yet another false promise to help independent artists in the digital age. Read Neil Turkewitz’s interview with artist bor, a member of the activist group @NFTTheft, and read his follow-up piece about ...
Suppose there were a company whose minions went around whacking people in the head with two-by-fours. Then, suppose that in response, the multiple victims of said whacking joined a class-action lawsuit against the corporation and won their case. Now, imagine that rather than any damage award going to the plaintiff class members, the money instead went to various organizations, including ...
I have said a few times on this blog that contemporary politics in the United States is increasingly reminiscent of the turbulent 19th century. We only have 2.4 centuries of existence as a nation, and it took half of that time just to begin to fulfill the promise of equality—principally by advancing of the rights of labor relative to the ...
The performing rights organization (PRO) called ASCAP was formed on February 13, 1914 when a group of about 100 American composers met at the Hotel Claridge in New York City to create a mechanism for collecting “public performance” royalties. The 1909 Copyright Act had extended the performance right to this class of copyright holders, but it did not define exactly ...
According to Peter Kafka writing for re/code, the fact that Adele has broken all-time records with sales of her new album “25” while simultaneously rejecting streaming services is too much of an oddity to provide any guidance for music professionals vis-a-vis their business models. Kafka writes the following: “If you are looking for big lessons in Adele’s success selling more ...
